This Was a Man: The Clifton Chronicles, Book 7

This Was a Man opens with a shot being fired, but who pulled the trigger, and who lives and who dies? In Whitehall, Giles Barrington discovers the truth about his wife, Karin, from the cabinet secretary. Is she a spy or a pawn in a larger game? Harry Clifton sets out to write his magnum opus while his wife, Emma, completes her 10 years as chairman of the Bristol Royal Infirmary and receives an unexpected call from Margaret Thatcher offering her a job.

Kane and Abel

William Lowell Kane and Abel Rosnovski, one the son of a Boston millionaire, the other a penniless polish immigrant-born on the same day near the turn of the century on opposite sides of the world-are brought together by fate and the quest of a dream. Two men - ambitious, powerful, ruthless - are locked in a relentless struggle to build an empire, fueled by their all-consuming hatred.

The Prodigal Daughter

With a will of steel, Polish immigrant Florentyna Rosnovski is indeed Abel's daughter. She shares with her father a love of America, his ideals, and his dream for the future. But she wants more to be the first female president. Golden boy Richard Kane was born into a life of luxury. The scion of a banking magnate he is successful, handsome, and determined to carve his own path in the world - and to build a future with the woman he loves. With Florentyna's ultimate goal only a heartbeat away, both are about to discover the shattering price of power as a titanic battle of betrayal and deception.

As the Crow Flies

When Charlie Trumper inherits the barrow his grandfather used to peddle fruit and vegetables in turn-of-the-century Whitechapel, England, he inherits his enterprising spirit as well. Charlie's deeply held ambition to raise himself out of the poverty of London's East End is destined to be realized, but there are many obstacles to overcome, including a tour of duty at the front in World War I, where he encounters the man who will become his lifelong enemy.

Shall We Tell the President?: Kane & Abel, Book 3

Florentyna Kane has finally become the first woman president in America. But on the very day that she is sworn into office, powerful forces are already in motion to take her life. The FBI investigates 1000s of false threats every year. This time, a reliable source has tipped them off about an assassination attempt. One hour later, the informant and all but one of the investigating agents are dead. The lone survivor: FBI Special Agent Mark Andrews. Now, only he knows when the killers will strike. But how can he alone unravel a ruthless conspiracy - in less than one week?

The Whistler

Lacy Stoltz is an investigator for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct. She is a lawyer, not a cop, and it is her job to respond to complaints dealing with judicial misconduct. After nine years with the board, she knows that most problems are caused by incompetence, not corruption. But a corruption case eventually crosses her desk. A previously disbarred lawyer is back in business with a new identity. He now goes by the name Greg Myers, and he claims to know of a Florida judge who has stolen more money than all other crooked judges combined.

A Prisoner of Birth

One evening, Danny, an East End cockney who works as a garage mechanic, takes his girlfriend up to the West End to celebrate their engagement. He crosses the path of Spencer Craig, a West End barrister tipped to be the youngest Queen's Counsel of his generation. A few hours later Danny is arrested for murder and later is sentenced to 22 years in prison.

No Man's Land: John Puller Series

John Puller's mother disappeared nearly 30 years ago. Despite an intensive search and investigation, she was never seen again. But new allegations have come to light suggesting that Puller's father - now suffering from dementia and living in a VA hospital - may have murdered his wife. Puller is officially barred from working on the case and faces a potential court-martial if he disobeys the order, but he knows he can't sit this investigation out.

The Wrong Side of Goodbye: A Harry Bosch Novel, Book 21

Harry Bosch is California's newest private investigator. He doesn't advertise, he doesn't have an office, and he's picky about who he works for, but it doesn't matter. His chops from 30 years with the LAPD speak for themselves. Soon one of Southern California's biggest moguls comes calling. The reclusive billionaire has less than six months to live and a lifetime of regrets. He hires Bosch to find out whether he has an heir.

Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less

What can an Oxford don, a respected society physician, a chic French art dealer, and a charming English lord have in common? Very little, except they've all been swindled out of every cent they had by Harvey Metcalfe, the man who wrote the book on international stock fraud. They haven't a prayer of ever seeing their money again. Or have they?

The Traitor's Story

When fifteen-year-old American Hailey Portman goes missing in Switzerland, her desperate parents seek the help of their neighbor, Finn Harrington, a seemingly quiet historian rumored to be a former spy. Sensing the story runs deeper than anyone yet knows, Finn reluctantly agrees to make some enquiries. He has little to go on other than his instincts, and his instincts have been wrong in the past - sometimes spectacularly wrong.

The Highwayman: A Longmire Story

When Wyoming highway patrolman Rosey Wayman is transferred to the beautiful and imposing landscape of the Wind River Canyon, an area the troopers refer to as no-man's-land because of the lack of radio communication, she starts receiving "officer needs assistance" calls. The problem? They're coming from Bobby Womack, a legendary Arapaho patrolman who met a fiery death in the canyon almost a half century ago.

Medicus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

Gaius Petrius Ruso is a divorced and down-on-his-luck army doctor who has made the rash decision to seek his fortune in an inclement outpost of the Roman Empire, namely Britannia. After a 36-hour shift at the army hospital, he succumbs to a moment of weakness and rescues an injured slave girl, Tilla, from the hands of her abusive owner. And before he knows it, Ruso is caught in the middle of an investigation into the deaths of prostitutes working out of the local bar.

Night School: A Jack Reacher Novel, Book 21

It's 1996, and Reacher is still in the army. In the morning they give him a medal, and in the afternoon they send him back to school. That night he's off the grid. Out of sight, out of mind. Two other men are in the classroom - an FBI agent and a CIA analyst. Each is a first-rate operator, each is fresh off a big win, and each is wondering what the hell they are doing there. Then they find out: A jihadist sleeper cell in Hamburg, Germany, has received an unexpected visitor - a Saudi courier seeking safe haven while waiting to rendezvous with persons unknown.

Dry Bones

What happened to Jacques Gaillard? The brilliant teacher at the École Nationale d’Administration, who trained some of France’s best and brightest as future prime ministers and presidents, vanished ten years ago, presumably from Paris. This ten-year-old mystery inspires a bet—one that Enzo Macleod, a biologist teaching in Toulouse, France, instead of pursuing a brilliant career in forensics back home in Scotland, can ill afford to lose.

A Place Called Freedom

This lush novel, set in 1766 England and America, evokes an era ripe with riot and revolution, from the teeming streets of London to the sprawling grounds of a Virginia plantation. Mack McAsh burns with the desire to escape his life of slavery in Scottish coal mines while Lizzie Hallim is desperate to shed a life of sheltered subjugation to her spineless husband. United in America, their only chance for freedom lies beyond the Western frontier - if they're brave enough to take it.

The Sign of Four: A Sherlock Holmes Novel

As a dense yellow fog swirls through the streets of London, a deep melancholy has descended on Sherlock Holmes, who sits in a cocaine-induced haze at 221B Baker Street. His mood is only lifted by a visit from a beautiful but distressed young woman---Mary Morstan, whose father vanished ten years before. Four years later she began to receive an exquisite gift every year: a large, lustrous pearl.

The Obsession

Naomi Bowes lost her innocence the night she followed her father into the woods. In freeing the girl trapped in the root cellar, Naomi revealed the horrible extent of her father's crimes and made him infamous. Now a successful photographer living under the name Naomi Carson, she has found a place that calls to her, thousands of miles away from everything she's ever known. Naomi wants to embrace the solitude, but the residents of Sunrise Cove keep forcing her to open up - especially the determined Xander Keaton.

Killing Trail: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery, Book 1

When a young girl is found dead in the mountains outside Timber Creek, lifelong resident Officer Mattie Cobb and her partner, K-9 police dog Robo, are assigned to the case that has rocked the small Colorado town. With the help of Cole Walker, a local veterinarian and single father, Mattie and Robo must track down the truth before it claims another victim. But the more Mattie investigates, the more she realizes how many secrets her town holds. And the key may be Cole's daughter, who knows more than she's saying.

Sons of Fortune

In Hartford, Connecticut, in the late 1940's a set of twins is parted at birth - not by accident. During the 1950s and 1960s, the two brothers grow up apart, following similar paths that take them in different directions. At various times in their lives, both men are confronted with challenges and obstacles, tragedy and betrayal, loss and hardship, before they both decide to run for governor, unaware they are brothers...

Paths of Glory: A Novel

Some people have dreams that are so magnificent that if they were to achieve them, their place in history would be guaranteed. People like Christopher Columbus, Isaac Newton, Florence Nightingale, Thomas Edison, Nancy Astor, Charles Lindbergh, Amy Johnson, Edmund Hilary and Neil Armstrong - their unparalleled success has made their stories into legend.But what if one man had such a dream, and once he'd achieved it, there was no proof that he had fulfilled his ambition?

Behind Closed Doors

Everyone knows a couple like Jack and Grace. He has looks and wealth; she has charm and elegance. He's a dedicated attorney who has never lost a case; she is a flawless homemaker, a masterful gardener and cook, and dotes on her disabled younger sister. Though they are still newlyweds, they seem to have it all. You might not want to like them, but you do. You're hopelessly charmed by the ease and comfort of their home, by the graciousness of the dinner parties they throw. You’d like to get to know Grace better.

Escape Clause: A Virgil Flowers Novel, Book 9

The first storm comes from, of all places, the Minnesota zoo. Two large and very rare Amur tigers have vanished from their cage, and authorities are worried sick that they've been stolen for their body parts. Traditional Chinese medicine prizes those parts for home remedies, and people will do extreme things to get what they need. Some of them are a great deal more extreme than others - as Virgil is about to find out.

Publisher's Summary

New York Times best seller Jeffrey Archer continues his beloved Clifton Chronicle series as Harry and Emma finally begin building a happy life - but a dangerous family enemy is about to resurface....

Best Kept Secret opens a moment after the end of The Sins of the Father, with the resolution of the trial and the triumphant marriage of Harry Clifton and Elizabeth Barrington, finally uniting their family. Harry, now a best-selling novelist; Emma; their son, Sebastian; and orphaned Jessica make a new life for themselves, but all is not as happy and secure as it could be. Emma's brother, Giles, is engaged to a woman who may be more interested in Barrington's fortune and title than in a long and happy marriage. And Sebastian, though he is bright, isn't quite the hard worker that his father was at school, and finds a hard time resisting the temptations that his somewhat unsavory friends provide.

It all comes to a head when a new villain is uncovered, a face from the past with grudges against both Harry and Giles - Fisher, who tortured Harry at school and later took credit for Giles' heroics during the war. Fisher teams up with Giles' now ex-wife to wreak havoc on Giles' latest election as well as meddle with affairs inside Barringtons, while Harry and Emma must deal with a new scheme that Sebastian has unwittingly fallen into with a supposed friend. The drama continues for Harry Clifton and his family, bringing this mesmerizing saga into the 1960s.

I love Archer's books. Thoroughly enjoyed the first two books in the Clifton Chronicles series....couldn't stop listening. But this one just didn't draw me in as much. Seemed "forced", like he was trying to make things happen when he really didn't have a good story. The cliff hanger didn't annoy me as much as some of the reviewers, because I expected it after the second book. I feel like it's easy to guess how it will turn out in the next book though. I'm not sure if I will buy the next two though as this one disappointed. Maybe he rushed it too much to get the next one in the series out?

So many things disappointed me about this book. The ending was abrupt and left one thinking that the only thing Jeffrey Archer was thinking about when creating it, was selling his next book in the series. The characters were hard to believe and inconsistent, with very poor character development evident in everyone except perhaps Emma and Harry Clifton. The story wound its way without any rhyme or reason through various twists and turns that did not seem congruent with each other. I did not feel the book had any cohesiveness. This was a dramatic change from how I felt about all the other Jeffrey Archer books I've read to date.

Has Best Kept Secret turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, definitely not, since I've read enough of Mr. Archer's books to believe that the next one will be better and this one was just a "glitch" in the middle of his wonderful series.

What about Alex Jennings and Emilia Fox ’s performance did you like?

The voices were well done for the most part.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

It kept me reading, despite the very abrupt and inappropriate ending.

Any additional comments?

Will I buy the next book in the series? Of course. Jeffrey Archer has proved himself in his other masterpieces of mystery and I will of course, succumb. But a slap on the hand for Mr. Archer after reading The Best Kept Secret... The name is apt, since I was unable to figure out what the secret was.

I enjoyed the previous two books and was disappointed with this third installment. Unlike some of the other reviewers, however, my disappointment was not with the abrupt ending. It was with the novel itself. The story 'reads' like a plot outline -- with absolutely no character development whatsoever even by Jeffrey Archer's standards. So Character A, for example, will go from being a difficult child to a model adolescent with absolutely no explanation as to what brought the change about. Character B, besotted with his wife and willing to forsake all else at her request, is able to move on from his infatuation at the drop of a dime. Of course, the infatuation seems absurd from the start since Character C, the wife, is a cartoonish Cruella Deville without a single redeeming quality -- and the fact that Character B fell madly in love with her seems, well, out of character. In this novel, the characters are all lowercase and act however they have to at that moment in order to move The Plot along. And, believe me, The Plot moves...at dizzying speed and in all kinds of preposterous directions. It's almost like if Archer is thinking of what will happen next as he types! In fact, I am not even sure what "the Best Kept Secret" was meant to be since the story line regarding what I THOUGHT was "the secret" does not get resolved. In fact, it is not even mentioned in the last 50 or more pages of The Plot. (Could it be that the audible production did leave a section out?) If you are a Jeffrey Archer fan, by all means, download it. It's not deep, but it is kind-of entertaining. I am sure I will buy the next one.

I've been a big fan of Archer and the Clifton Chronicles, but this book may have turned me off for good. Archer phoned this one in. The book simply seems rushed and thrown together. Some parts of the story were interesting, but it was predicable at every turn.

What could Jeffrey Archer have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

He could have actually put forth an effort to write a quality book.

What three words best describe Alex Jennings’s performance?

Jennings was fine.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Both disappointment and anger. Disappointment that a series I previously enjoyed was ruined and anger at how little effort was put forth (not to mention the fact that Archer and his publisher are attempting to force fans to pay five times for a single story).

I think Jeffrey should hire Christina from Somerville, MA as a proofreader an critic. I concur with her full assessment. Great job articulating the multitude of issues with this book. Jeffrey should be ashamed of himself to actually publish such a terrible piece of work. His has done, and is capable of, so much better than this. I would consider this a "trash novel". In addition, be aware that this is not the end of a trilogy.

Would you ever listen to anything by Jeffrey Archer again?

yes, but only after reading reviews very carefully.

Would you be willing to try another one of Alex Jennings and Emilia Fox ’s performances?

Yes,

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

It passed the time while I was doing housework!

Any additional comments?

Loyalty only goes so far. My respect for Mr. Archer is dwindling. I'd rather wait for a book of quality than have my time wasted. I used to have Mr. Archer on par with Ken Follett but I don't think he can redeem himself from this book.

It kept me interested. However, I was disappointed to discover some subplots are recycled from previous works. A little "Kane and Abel", a little "Prisoner of Birth", and one chapter was nearly verbatim from "Sons of Fortune". Can you plagiarize yourself?

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

I felt very invested in what happened to everyone in the story, kept me coming back whenever I had a moment to listen

I can't complain about the ending because I can't get that far. I'm half way through and just don't care enough about the characters to go on. Despite having gotten to know them all in the first two books, they now seem to have no personality and no "story". The plot is written like an outline with huge jumps between scenes and passes through time so quickly you wonder if you missed a part. The first two books in the series were wonderful and I couldn't stop listening. This one I stopped after a couple of hours and came back to it weeks later. Now, I'm half way and know it's just not worth my time.

I absolutely loved the first two books in The Clifton Chronicles. It was a fresh feel for Jeffrey Archer and the characters within the series were easy to connect with.

Now in the third book in the series, it’s starting to feel a bit long in the tooth. Archer is one of the finest authors out there and he makes a plot that is thin to begin with still interesting to read. However when you compare Best Kept Secret to the first two books it’s a sad step in the wrong direction.

Outside of the very last few chapters of the book there wasn't a ton of compelling reasons to keep on with the series. It’s unfortunate but I think this book may prove that Archer stretched out this series a little longer then it needed to be.

I was unaware that this would not be the end of this sequence. I thought I read in a review of the author that it would end with this book. Only Time Will tell was a good read. Sins of the Father was ok but this book was too scattered and stopping where it did wasn't just disappointing, it made me mad. The first part of the book dragged to the point of I wondered if it was the same story. Then just as he was getting the story started, it came to an abrupt end. And where was Ms. Fox in the narration? I liked the way she read the story from the women's point of view in book one. I read the second book myself. But I never heard her voice in this third book.